How to Set up an iMac as a Second Screen

Here’s a bit of a pickle for you. You’ve got some little, 15 inch laptop on which you want to game, but the screen kinda hurts your eyes a bit. We’ve all been there, right? Now, let’s take things a little further and assume you’ve also got an old iMac sitting around. Now, the screen on that thing is just a touch bigger than your laptop screen, isn’t it? Believe it or not, it’s actually quite easy to hook the two together- but you’ll need to make sure your computer has a Mini Display port, and Display Port Output, in which case you’ll want a male to male Mini DisplayPort Adapter. Check out the manual to find out. Failing that, you can pick yourself up a mini display port to VGA adapter. Again, Amazon’s the place to look.

First thing you’ll want to do is power down both systems. Once that’s done, plug one end of the adapter into your computer, and the other into the iMac. The slot you need to plug it into should be right next to the ethernet port.  Once that’s done, turn them both on, and the iMac should enter into Target Display Mode.  That’s it! You’re done!

Now, if you want to use an iMac as a secondary screen,things could potentially get a touch more complicated. It depends what sort of system you’re running, and whether or not it can support multiple displays (check your graphics card’s information to be sure). For this, we’re going to assume you’re using a PC, and you’ve already got one monitor all set up and good to go.  If your PC has more than one input plug for a display monitor (quite a few do), you’re good- all you really need to do is plug them in and configure the software (which shouldn’t be too difficult).

However, if you’re using a laptop, you’re going to want to pick up a multi-display adapter. Most of them aren’t too pricey. Shop around a bit, and see if you can’t find one you like.

Anyway, once you’ve plugged everything in, you shouldn’t have too much trouble configuring the software. It’s…pretty much just a case of plug in and play, more or less. Note that the iMac will still be running, and if you unplug it, you can use it as a computer, as well.

Image Credits: [Gizmodo]

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